Monday, 25 October 2010

The above is a cover on a book, it is fabric which has been hand painted then hand embroidered. Below is a sample I did for C&G embroidery - an experimental piece manipulating fabric. { I don't think the photo does it any favours}

The bird picture was done on a scraper board [scratch art] using a metal tool.

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Take a Stitch Tuesday - this weeks stitch is called Buttonholed Double Chain. I had a spot of bother to start with and I'm still not sure if I got it right in the end. Anyway this is my version of it. I may have another attempt later in the week.

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

A digital collage arrangement. The 'horse' was originally a 3d object made up using a domino, chess knight, wooden beads for the legs and a string tail. I painted a picture of it & the picture was altered digitally for the postcard above.

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

I bought a packet of 'Nasty Bugs' from the PoundShop which included skeletons - above left. To make the stamp I drew around it on fun foam {funky foam} & then cut it out with little scissors. I also cut out a few holes for ribs. I stuck it to some flat polystyrene with double sided sticky tape [I think I used carpet tape {it was to hand} & was very sticky] I didn't cut round the tape too - I just shook a little talcum powder over the sticky bits after attaching the foam to the poystyrene. I painted the stamp with acrylic paints & when dry painted the background with inks.

If you don't have a plastic skeleton, trace/copy a picture from a book, just the basic outline & not too many details.

Monday, 18 October 2010

Below the Surface - Bunnies, rabbit warren. This one I painted directly into the book, but I gesso'd the page first. Pen, watercolours, brusho inks, the rabbits have been left the colour of the page/gesso. I didn't like the colour of the earth on the first attempt so I painted it again & added more water which seeped onto another next page, so the skeleton page now has extra colouring than when I posted that picture.

Sunday, 17 October 2010

I used some textured paper for these [I will stick them into the book].

I made some stamps with fun foam for the seaweed & urchins on the background, & stamped them on the paper with acrylics then painted over with brusho paints. I used some hand decorated papers for the seaweed in the forground and the fish and stitched them into place. I also stitched one of the urchins.

Saturday, 16 October 2010

We had an enjoyable day at Chatsworth House during the week. These are photos of some of the curtain tassels we saw there, so intricate, they must have taken ages to make. I did attempt making tassels when I was doing the City & Guilds course - I wasn't very good at it, too fiddly for me.

Illustration Friday challenge this week is 'Spooky'. I digitally altered one of my old felted pieces based on 'The Scream' by E. Munch. The top left square is the original, as is the full picture at the bottom. I like the two on the top right and the one on the bottom right the most.

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

I've been away for a few days, first to London to see my daughter and new hubby and to give them the wedding photo albums I have done for them. The original plan was to make a book from scratch but I decided against the idea as I'm fairly new to making books so I purchased a couple of albums and covered them. The large one, above, I covered up to the spine area and the smaller album goes all around the album. The large one has an embroidered print [printed on fabric thru the inkjet printer], a padded embroidered heart and three strips of lace down one side. I've embroidered french knots along this. It came with a box to keep it clean.

The smaller album was a transfer print onto fabric. The picture was made up of the original invitations, the place tags, lace, a book, and stamped images. I also made a plastic cover for this one.

Monday, 4 October 2010

When I was photographing something in my studio last week I noticed this picture on my studio wall which I did a while ago, but I feel it is missing something...beads perhaps? I think if you hang things on a wall that you are not sure about and look at it from time to time an idea usually comes along to improve it. I have tried various paint effects but I still wasn't sure.

It was made from 2 recycled canvas pictures, the canvases were cheap and not very nice [although the pictures on them were not too bad]. I cut one of the canvases from the frame to the centre and then stuck both canvases together to make a deep well in the centre. I covered the whole lot with paper, creased to add texture. For the centre I rolled strips of newspaper, lots of them as you can see and then glued them in place. The whole lot was painted several times with a final coat of metallic gold. [It looks more goldy than the picture shows] But it still needs something else....